Changing Your Practice’s Culture REPRODUCED WITH PERMISSION FROM OPHTHALMOLOGY MANAGEMENT. COPYRIGHT 1998. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Planning Strategies NOVEMBER 1998
Your "corporate culture" can determine whether your practice succeeds or fails.  (second of a two part series) Part I is Reviewing Organizational Culture.)
As your practice grows from an entrepreneurial organization to a professionally managed business, you’ll need to address a variety of business issues. A core issue to examine is your corporate culture.

Corporate culture consists of the values, beliefs and norms that govern behavior of your practice’s employees. The culture reflects what the practice stands for in regard to services, management of employees and the way you conduct your business.

Culture has a profound effect on the success or failure of your practice. It also will determine the degree of employee commitment to the practice and the manner in which your patients perceive your practice.

EFFECTIVE REINFORCEMENT

Cultural change is inevitable as your practice grows. The type of culture you want to reinforce or introduce is manifested in your leadership style, employee development programs, your overall structure and your planning process.

For the culture to become truly effective, it’s important that it be consistent throughout all management systems.

Maybe you’re not aware of your practice’s culture, but every organization, from its inception, possesses one.

WHAT TO FOCUS ON

When redefining your practice’s culture, focus on these four broad areas:

Organizational design: When redesigning the practice, look at changes in the leadership and consider whether these roles need redefining. Often, practices need to move from strategic leadership to operational leadership. In other words, the practice no longer needs a visionary leader but someone who can act as a day-to-day manager.

Strategic planning: This process defines and refines what business you’re in. This is a critical area for you to focus on, and many failed businesses haven’t adequately and globally defined these parameters. The first step to take in strategic planning is establishing a mission statement.

Management development: This entails developing formalized training programs for both present and potential managers. Management development has three important benefits:

First, you create a pool of skilled managers to draw from.
Second, sharing experiences with peers creates lasting relationships that can strengthen the practice.
Third, employees share new skills and the new definition of the corporate culture with others in the practice, helping to create unity.

Culture management: The cultural change process must begin with an audit or assessment of your practice’s present culture. This can be a difficult process because employees aren’t always able to articulate values, beliefs and norms.

To gather this information, use a variety of tools, including questionnaires, interviews and analysis of internal corporate materials.

CREATING AN ACTION PLAN

After identifying the present culture, determine changes you’d like to make. At this point, design a strategy and action plan for introducing change into your practice.

Use a variety of ingredients to implement change, including informal family-style gatherings, changes in senior management attitudes, a culture survey, and a committee dedicated to increasing interdepartmental communication and management development.

The ultimate goal is to balance your partners’ and your employees’ values and needs with your own. By analyzing your practice’s corporate culture and refining it as needed, you’ll ensure that your practice is moving toward the future in a positive direction.